


The Edge of Shadow

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Eventual Finn/Rey/Ben Solo, Jedi Ben Solo, Multi, Polyamory, Space Opera, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 19:51:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18212837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: In a galaxy where Ben Solo doesn’t turn to the Dark Side, he befriends Finn and Rey — and their friendship becomes a lot more even as they fight against the First Order.





	The Edge of Shadow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenOfCarrotFlowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfCarrotFlowers/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: For the awesome leoba, who is unfortunately recovering from being sick. I hope you like it, leoba! 
> 
> P.S. It’s turning into a monstrosity of its own because I apparently can’t do simple. Dammit.
> 
> P.P.S. Title is a bit of a Lord of the Rings reference.

After his family broke apart, Ben can safely say it was like his own galaxy had ended, and he hated the woman who called herself Aria Ren for that. 

He doesn’t know why, of course, she did it. Pure sadism, maybe. Maybe there’s just a script where someone has to fall to the Dark Side, just with different places and different names. He’ll be damned if he knows. He just remembers, at nineteen when it happened, wondering what went wrong and how to fix it. (After kicking over a chair in a rage, naturally)

He remembers watching for holograms from his father. His father, updating him on how he was doing, and wishing to the Force he would come home.

Won’t you, he remembers wondering. Won’t you?

He hates Aria Ren for many other reasons.

This just feels like the most personal.

***

He meets Aria Ren on Jakku when he’s captured after a duel with her — a duel he loses. BB-9E is thankfully away from sight, but he knows what exactly he’s in for when Ren captures him. Snoke’s been building up the Knights of Ren from the seven that destroyed the Academy to even more. And he’s after Ben. Ben knows it. Stars willing he’s been fighting against Snoke’s voice in his head day in and day out.

He talks back to her when he’s in that cell, and in that moment, he almost wishes he could be like Poe Dameron. He’s not Poe Dameron, obviously, but he knows that he needs to be brave. Brave as brave can be.

She talks to him, of course, trying to persuade him that the First Order isn’t evil. “Is it really evil,” she says, “That we’re trying to bring some semblance of order to a corrupt galaxy? Surely you’ve seen it, young Solo. Disease, famine, general unfairness in the galaxy...you’ve seen it.”

Ben has. Snoke has all but shoved it into his brain again and again. All these horrifying images, until Ben swears that he can’t take any more. Until he wakes up gripping the sides of his head and trying to regain any sense of clarity and BB-9E has to comfort him.

”The Resistance won’t help the galaxy,” Aria says. “We will.”

Ben refuses. He can’t betray his friends like that, no matter what Aria says. He can’t simply do something like that.

”I had hoped,” Aria says, “That you’d see things our way. Maybe you will, in time.”

They try to get the map from him, of course, but even that’s secondary to trying to get Ben to join them. All the while, Ben can see visions of himself in an almost avian mask, and he can’t help but be terrified.

Snoke will break him. Teach him how far someone, anyone, can fall.

He needs to get out of there.

***

He escapes with a stormtrooper — probably one of the most handsome men he’s ever seen, with his dark brown eyes that are terribly expressive, smooth umber brown skin and almost chiseled features. Even his voice is soft and earnest and calming once unfiltered, reassuring Ben he’ll get Ben out of there if Ben plays along, and Ben can’t help but trust him. Everything he can sense tells him that this man is a good man.

FN-2187, he’s called, but he takes on the name Finn, and from there, they form a quick friendship.

Well, before they’re shot out of the sky.

***

When Ben comes to, he’s in some sort of metal construction, and the first thing that occurs to him is the idea that he’s been somehow recaptured by the First Order — at least until he hears Finn’s voice. A voice that he still finds calming, mellow and pretty to listen to despite the circumstances. “It’s okay, Ben. You’re okay. You’re still in shock from the crash. You’re lucky that I pulled you out of that TIE when I did or you would have been a bit crispy.”

Ben wonders where exactly Finn gets his talent for understatement, really.

The girl also looking over him — and she’s very pretty, no, striking, with rich brown hair in three buns and a classically lovely face — says (and Ben wonders absently if her accent is Coruscanti. It sounds close enough), “You’re both with the Resistance?”

”I...” Finn hesitates. “I escaped,” he says. “With him.”

The girl nods. “From the First Order?”

“Yes,” Finn says. He sounds almost embarrassed about it, no, ashamed, and Ben wonders what the stang the First Order did to such a good man that he’s ashamed of what they did to him.

”Finn’s a good man,” Ben says. “If it wasn’t for him, I’d be shipped off to Snoke by now to be tortured worse.”

The girl nods. “The both of you are very brave.” Then, “I’ve never met a Resistance fighter before. Let alone two.” She actually looks...appreciative, and Ben can’t help but feel a bit shy. He can’t say that he’s been the subject of positive attention, at least in this realm; he’s used to being the gawky Solo boy with the big nose and ears. Poe, bless him, has tried to comfort him on that front.

”Oh, that’s what we look like,” Finn says. “Some of us anyway. Others look different.”

”BB-9E says that they’re on a secret mission,” says the girl, and she sounds almost excited, like they’re wrapped up in a grand adventure. “We have to get back to your base.”

”She’s carrying a map to my uncle,” Ben says. “The First Order’s after it. Everyone is.”

”I’ll help you,” says the girl. “I promise.”

Ben sighs in relief. He can be assured that he’s safe, with this former trooper, and this scavenger. He likes them, he decides. Good people in the galaxy are hard to find nowadays, and when you find people like these, you hold onto them with all you have.

***

They have to run, naturally. They board the Falcon — and Ben was wondering what happened to that ship — and it’s there that they learn about each other more.

The girl’s name is Rey. Simple, but pretty.

The fact that Ben is Han Solo’s son slips out, and Finn and Rey proceed to gush about it, Finn expressing admiration for Han’s status as a Rebellion General, Rey for his status as a smuggler. Ben just hopes that they don’t ask for autographs. He prefers to keep a low profile.

They need to get back to his mother, of course. His father may have gone back to smuggling, but Ben isn’t going to give up just because he did. His mother needs him. So do his friends.

Now they just need to get the piece of the map back. But he, Finn and Rey — they’re friends now. That’s what matters. When you risk your life fleeing the First Order together...well, that’s definitely a cause for bonding, right then and there.

 


End file.
